What’s for Dinner?

By Christianna Shortridge

What should we have for dinner? This question has taken me to a new level of culinary query over the past year of living during pandemic. This eternal dinner plan question plagues me every day.

The small ski community in which I live, nestled into the Sierra Nevada just across the state line from Reno, Nevada, has plenty of dining options and a few overpriced grocery stores. Truckee, California became overrun with tourists trying to escape the pandemic in the Bay Area only to enhance the spread of the coronavirus in the Lake Tahoe Basin. (Tahoe does have the same virus that is in the Bay Area.) The influx of people who seem to think they are safe from COVID-19 once they arrive in Truckee have forced my family and I to retreat to the safety of home and our own kitchen.

I’ve been riding out the pandemic with my son (also a Humanities Heart to Heart contributor), who has been distance-learning for his entire senior year. My heart goes out to him. Can you imagine having to spend your senior year at home? My daughter also joined our pandemic pod in March 2020 when the foreign policy think tank where she works shut the doors of their Washington, DC office, which has yet to physically reopen. 

So what to do? Cook! Open up the collection of cookbooks resting on the bookshelves, and look beyond the favorite recipes to try something new. But wait, it’s not that easy! Someone in the house is at high-risk for contracting COVID-19 (that would be me). That complicates gathering the necessary dinner ingredients.

 
Cookbook collection. Photo/Christianna Shortridge.

Cookbook collection. Photo/Christianna Shortridge.

 

Getting Groceries

It didn’t take us too long to figure out that we shouldn’t be going into grocery stores. My son did the first grocery runs to the local Save Mart last March. This was before the ski resorts shut down and stores were bustling with tourists. He didn’t feel safe.

So we tried the Target in Reno where my son scored toilet paper last March. When my daughter arrived from DC in April, she joined my son on a Target run only to emerge rattled, afraid of contracting COVID-19 and sharing it with me. People weren’t really wearing masks yet, they weren’t social distancing, and most didn’t seem to take this virus as seriously as we did. 

The solution? Ordering groceries online with curbside pickup. By June the grocery stores had figured this out too, and we evolved into making a weekly “Reno run,” taking turns making the 30-minute drive on an always treacherous I-80 that snakes its way through a canyon alongside the Truckee River to Reno. A beautiful, but white-knuckle drive to get our weekly groceries. If you are wondering why not get your groceries in your own town? I’m guessing that you do not live in a tourist town during a pandemic.

If you have ever tried Instacart or any grocery pick up service, you know that it’s not a perfect science. Sometimes they run out of the leeks you need for dinner. Or they accidentally forgot to put your rotisserie chicken in the back of your Toyota. The pickup is the easy part. Weekly meal planning necessary to place your order returns you back to that question, “What’s for dinner?”

Advance Planning

After months of trial and error, I learned a few things. 

  • Keep a paper list going all week in a visible spot. This way no one can accuse you of not getting their Goldfish because it was not on the list.

  • Pull out the cookbooks (virtual and physical) to find new dinner options.

  • Build your weekly order online with past orders. Obvious, but it took me a while to figure out this time-saving trick.

  • Stock up your pantry in case the store is out of your crushed tomatoes.

  • Ask and you shall receive…sometimes. I always forget an essential item, but usually my shopper can add it to my order if I text them in advance.

  • Order early enough to get a time slot on the day you need your groceries. Remember how busy the grocery store is the week of Thanksgiving? The same is true in the virtual grocery world.

  • Order spices online at Penzeys or The Spice House as grocery stores are sometimes out.

Cooking Together

One of the most pleasant things to come out of a year in pandemic has been spending lots of time in the kitchen with my children. They are all “adult” children now, but they still need guidance when it comes to making a meal. As the pandemic enters its second year, we still have plenty of “old” recipes to try as we cook our way through my collection of Ina Garten’s tried and true Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, Jamie Oliver’s English creations, classic Silver Palette cookbooks from the 80s and 90s, hearty soups and sides from The Pioneer Woman, and Madhur Jaffrey’s spicy and savory Indian recipes. We search out recipes in the Sunday New York Times to try something new for the week ahead. The arrival of a new Bon Appétit or Cooks Illustrated is cause for celebration and worthy of a pause in our day as we pour through the magazines. We are always eager for a new addition to our dinner repertoire.

My immediate family is scattered across the country with my other son living his post-college life in Minneapolis and my husband whose job landed him (pre-pandemic) in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. This means sending screenshots of favorite recipes and then walking through the steps because each recipe is slightly altered to make it taste even better. On the rare occasion when we are all in Truckee together, the kitchen is always the hub of family activity.

 
Eggplant Parmesan. Food photos/Anna Shortridge.

Eggplant Parmesan. Food photos/Anna Shortridge.

Roasted Squash with Turmeric-Ginger Chickpeas.

Roasted Squash with Turmeric-Ginger Chickpeas.

 
 
Black and White Cookies.

Black and White Cookies.

Charcuterie Board with Hummus and Yogurt Mint Dip.

Charcuterie Board with Hummus and Yogurt Mint Dip.

 

Up in Flames
We have had our fair share of mishaps along the way. Some dishes just look and sound better in the cookbooks than in actuality. When we couldn’t get to the Shake Shack in Sacramento for a Smashburger because of a blizzard over Donner Summit—yes they actually close down the Interstate due to snow—we made them at home. Delicious, but very smoky, and the house smelled meaty for days afterward. Then last summer the grill was filthy from overuse, and I didn’t realize it until smoke was streaming out. Luckily we had boxes of baking soda in the pantry to extinguish the flames. No grilled salmon for dinner that night.

 
Image credit/Dinner That Wasn’t, Christianna Shortridge.

Image credit/Dinner That Wasn’t, Christianna Shortridge.

 

As America plods out of pandemic and searches out a new “normal” life, I take away precious memories of time spent cooking with my family. Making a curry by candlelight on the gas stovetop when the power went out—the fireplace glowing and snow piling up outside. Baking an abundance of chocolate desserts with my daughter to get us through the blur of long days and nights. Grilling fresh halibut for tacos and everyone in the family pitching in. Dining al fresco on the deck, gazing at the summer sun setting over Donner Summit to the west and the new moon rising over Nevada to the east with music from my pandemic playlist wafting overhead.

The pesky question of “what’s for dinner” has become a gift of family togetherness and joy, discovering new foods, lively dinner conversation, and memories of happy hours spent making meals together.

Favorite Recipes from Pandemic

Image/Sierra Sunset 2020, Christianna Shortridge.

Image/Sierra Sunset 2020, Christianna Shortridge.

Christianna Shortridge bio pic.jpg

Christianna Shortridge is the communications and advocacy consultant for Nevada Humanities. When not in the kitchen during pandemic, she enjoys hiking in the Sierra Nevada, dining outdoors with friends, working her way through the pile of books on her nightstand, planning trips to far-flung destinations, and going to Duran Duran concerts with her sister where they are usually found in the front row between John Taylor and Simon LeBon. 

 
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